Gathering the Beasts - Part Two

Human beings have an uncanny ability to underestimate the scope and time investment required from a task. 'Build 500 points of Warhammer Fantasy' I said, ' you can knock that out in a few months easily' I told myself.

That was a... while ago.

The train might be late, but what matters is that it got to the first station on the line - 500 points.

So how does one play a game of Warhammer Fantasy 7th edition at only 500 points? Surely you can build an extremely skewed list at such a small points level? Will the 6'x4' board be too big? What's to stop me taking huge units of cheap infantry? The answer? Border Patrol.

Border Patrol is the fantasy equivalent of the '40K in 40 minutes' rules guidelines, both of which were released in White Dwarf (remember when that was good?), the idea being to introduce a set of restrictions that would allow you to play small games fairly within a restrictive time period. The army restrictions are as follows:

• You must choose an army of no more than 500 points.
• You must have a single Hero to lead the force. They may not be an army standard bearer. 
• The army must consist of between 2 and 4 units, excluding the Hero.
• You must have at least one Core choice.
• You may take one Special or Rare choice, but not both.
• You must include at least one infantry unit of  at least 10 models.
• No unit may be larger than 25 models.
• No unit may carry a magical standard.
• No single model may cost more than 125 points.
• An army may have no more than one chariot or war machine.

 
The scenarios provided also restrict the play area to 4'x3', deploying along the short edges.

With these guidelines in mind, I put together the following list:

Heroes

Wargor (1) - 109
- Heavy Armour
- Sword of Might

Core

Gor Herd (14) - 137
- Full command 
- Shields

Gor Herd (15) - 145
- Full command
- Shields

Ungor Herd (10) - 50

Special

Harpies (5) - 55

Border Patrol looks like the ideal format for relearning how to play the game; the limited number of units will make sure its not too intimidating; we'll be able to complete multiple games within one session and can use this 500 points as a foundation for expanding up to 1000 points and beyond.

I'm looking to be playing against Richard's Skaven next week. This means I'll have to do some homework (or more likely we'll just bumble through the rules on the night). I will attempt to put together a battle report, or at the very least post some pictures, over on his site at Special Fried Dice, so stay tuned over there to see how badly we manage to butcher the rules.